I have a MacMini (Intel Core Solo with OSX 10.6.8) running as an iTunes Server with an external USB Storage without Keybord/Mouse/Monitor. Starting the MacMini is fairly easy, power on the USB storage, then push the power button on the MacMini.

But how can I shutdown the MacMini with this button? Activating sleep is possible, but I want a clean shutdown if I push the hardware button.

3 Answers
3

For a clean shutdown (the button solution is not clean and there is no way around it, i am afraid) i suggest you to connect to your iTunes Server via ssh from a second machine and shut it down this way.

Another option would be through Apple Script. If you have a specific time that you want to shutdown your iTunes Server, or if there is no request inbound to this server for a specific time a script could be auto-activated to archive this.

I think what you're asking is how can you do a shut down using the power button. You could use the methods mentioned by @v2r, but if you just want to use the power button, you have to hold it down for a few seconds for the Mac Mini to power off. I don't recommend doing this frequently, as it does not allow the OS to shut down properly.

I have come up with a solution to this problem. I run a headless Mac Mini and I always just held down the power button to turn it off until I found out this was a good way to screw up the drive... What I do now is I bought a Cyberpower UPS battery buck up, and I configured it to shut the mac mini don when it detects there is no power. I also configured the UPS to then shut it's self down after 1 minute. Then also configured it to tell the mac mini to restart when the power returns to the UPS. I have a switch on my wall that shuts down the power to my socket which the UPS is plugged into. So when I want the mac Mini to shut down I just hit the switch on my wall and presto the mac mini shut down and when I want it to restart i hit the switch again.